Yeah, I think the Dead are the obvious choice for anyone seeking something deeper from music - and that's what music is supposed to be about anyway - isn't it?
Changing percepetions, opening doors to alternative realities to the ones you find presented in mindless popular culture.

Is there anything like the Dead influencing kids these days to think for themselves?

Yup, today's utes are influenced by the finest artists in the hip-hop genre. Even the white boys here in the near rural South can be heard thump thump thumping through the countryside at all hours of the night. (and I'd know if it was a Leshian thumpy thump.)

I know for a fact that previous generations thought that Grateful Dead music was degenerative and without merit...not to mention how they regarded those ne'er do-wells that listened to it. But I wonder if they saw the absolute emptiness I encounter in some kids eyes these days. Were we that hollow? Maybe that stoned, but I rarely recall my counterparts as being so totally void of original thought and substance.

I can't stand the way that Presley boy shakes his hips. It's indecent and immoral and just goes to show what listening to race music will do to the youth. Don't even get me started on Little Richard (but that nice boy Pat Boone sure does a nice version of Tutti Frutti).

Not to make light of your concern, but I think each generation has the same fears/concerns re the next and the same dread of the previous one (don't trust anyone over 30 followed by Reagan youth). I, for one, come into contact with lots of teenagers and folks in their 20s, and find them to be roughly the same as were my peers (graduated high school in 1982) - no better, no worse. What I do think is different is their exposure to things, pressures, etc. I think the "loss of innocence" happens a lot sooner now than it did (whatever the hell that means).

Totally agree, but only to a certain point. With all due respect, "shaking hips" ect. are not comparable to the behavior of current pop culture. drive-by shootings,bitches & ho's, and now the local news coined a new lable, "respect murders". Evidently people are killing other people to gain respect from their peers. It's all way beyond my realm of comprehension.
PEACE!

yes, todays hip hop (sh!t) artists are listened to by my whole school. Some of my best friends listen to this crap music, and i ask why, they say that rap has good beats. Apparently they've never heard a lesh bomb. They just listen to what they are exposed too. You turn on TV everything is the hiphop, pop shit. Same with most radio stations. It outright makes me sick, everyone should have their own vibe, not what the media and whats popular control them

well said lastcall - way beyond me too. just so so sad - i'm scared for my young girls.

i've got no problem with rap and hip hop "music" - it's the violent and "female disrespectful" lyrics that bother me. I enjoy some of the beats until i realize what the "artists" are actually saying to our youth.